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This could get tedious, and if so, I apologize in advance, but I'm going ask you to evaluate two things, and ask you which is more "probable." -Don't worry, there will be no math. First: How could an incumbent President POSSIBLY lose re-election? 1/
Step 1: Barely win your first election by losing the popular vote and unexpectedly flipping three states by a combined total of 77,000 or so votes. Shocker! Nobody expected that, least of all, you. 2/
After surprising everyone with an unlikely victory, smudge it up with phony claims that it would have been bigger except for the "illegal votes" that were also imaginary. 3/
Then, spend the next four years breaking norms, ignoring precedent, stepping on your own johnson, and making yourself vulnerable to (justifiable) media criticism in order to work your opponents into a frothing, spittle-flecked rage. The madder they are, they better you feel. 4/
Value loyalty over competence. Surround yourself with people who tell you what makes you feel good, and make their employment a contest between those who kiss your ass, and those who french kiss it. 5/
Forget the power of public image you so carefully cultivated in building a real estate empire. You're the President! What you say goes! Make "fake news" a believable thing. believe that people hating you is just as valuable as people loving you -it's all just attention. 6/
Ignore the obvious limits of this strategy. Don't think for a minute that the number of people who hate and despise you without reservation might come to outnumber the people forced to look past your personality in order to be happy about your accomplishments. 7/
After you've shot your own credibility deader than one would a rabid dog, ignore the most powerful lie against you, the "very fine people" hoax. This will leave you vulnerable to false charges of being a "racist." 8/
So after polarizing the country and turning your political opponents into sworn enemies who would crawl through broken glass to vote against you, (no matter who the other guy is) go against your nature when confronted with a viral pandemic. Play that stuff down! 9/
You are a germaphobe! Nobody would question you if mandated masks, shut down the borders, locked people into their houses, ordered nationwide test-and-trace. All the headlines would read "Despite the Draconian and unconstitutional measures, Covid is still killing thousands!" 10/
But you would have been seen as "doing something." The "but he fights!" crowd would be over the top. The commie left would have loved it! The only people not wearing masks would be Libertarians -and well hell, that's herd immunity right there! 11/
You didn't do that, though. You relied on your personal ability to manipulate people to try to change things that aren't people. Things like viruses. And this particular virus was uniquely and perfectly suited to thwart your unique skill. 12/
Next, in the midst of a pandemic when people are being overly panicked to not get near other people, dismiss voting by mail as "corrupt and fraudulent." You've told everyone that mailing in their ballots is un-American. 13/
What does your base do? Well, since everyone they know is voting for you, and they don't want to vote by mail, they don't have to vote! And they don't. At all. 14/
Result of all this: Turnout soars! You get more votes than any Republican in American history. You increase your overall vote count from 2016. Amazing! Except... 15/
Everywhere the vote goes up, your SHARE of it goes down, some places a little, some a lot. Those three unlikely states you won in 2016? You lose them. And you lose Arizona and Georgia as well. How likely is that against the following scenario: 16/
Imagine, instead of all of the previous stuff I have outlined, which can be accurately described as "facts," that no votes have been tallied accurately in any election in America since 2010, when Dominion Voting Systems bought Diebold. Instead, 17/
The tabulating machines and software had all been rigged to flip votes to your opponent and deny you votes while simultaneously giving votes to Republicans in the down ballot contests, by a clever-but-nefarious international cabal whose goal was to "steal" a single election /18
-your re-election, from you. That plot would be insidious, and it would involve shady elections officials in specific counties in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Such scope and such precision! How could such a plot be possible? 19/
And that's the question: Which of those scenarios is more "likely," in your mind? An improbable win in 2016 can't be duplicated in 2020 because a candidate couldn't master himself or the circumstances he encountered, or 20/
a nefarious group of evil geniuses duped and co-opted enough elections officials across the country to subvert the proper outcome of an election? 21/
Choose below:
